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UCLA economist applauds Obama push for new market rules

by Brian Watt

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During a speech to bankers on Wall Street this morning, President Barack Obama called for an ambitious overhaul of the country’s financial regulations. The financial industry executives at the speech reacted quietly.

But the president's words reassured economist Ed Leamer of UCLA’s Anderson Forecast. Leamer said he’d started to worry that signs of an economic recovery had knocked the need for new rules off the radar screen.

Ed Leamer: "There were a lot of articles in various papers over the last week saying that now that the financial sector seems healthy again, we’re gonna forget completely the catastrophic situation that they put us in. But the power of that Obama speech was extraordinary. He just saying to all of us, 'We’re not gonna let this happen again.'"

Ed Leamer and the team of UCLA economists will release their latest Anderson Forecast on Wednesday.